[misc.headlines.unitex] <2/5> SECOND COMMITTEE HEARS 13 SPEAKERS ON WORLD

unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/11/89)

     Following the military and political areas where the path towards
     peace without weapons had been opened, he said "a second front"
     in the economic sphere was now open.  His Government supported
     the convening of the 1992 conference on environment and
     development, and the General Assembly should enact measures to
     monitor future threats to ecological security.  Activities of
     the Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction should include the
     co-ordination of international efforts.  The interests of all
     States should be respected in the preparatory work for the
     special session and the international development strategy, as
     well as for political recommendations to strengthen
     international economic co-operation.

     The process of perestroika had had effects on the economic
     policies of his Government, he said; its aim was to provide
     rights and freedom and enhance the quality of life for all.
     Property relations were being reformed and industrial
     enterprises restructured, providing access to the external
     market and integration in the world economy.  Byelorussia thus
     wanted to see an improvement in international economic
     relations, as domestic and foreign policies were deeply
     interlinked.

     YAKUB AL-MUBARAK (United Arab Emirates) said the United Nations
     was the best forum to propose better solutions to socio-economic
     problems.  Referring to problems concerning developing
     countries, such as commodity prices, trade questions, external
     finances, he said there should be complementarity among
     countries.  He called for the implementation of a new
     international economic order to allow the international
     community to find proper solutions to those problems.

     The special session of the General Assembly which would take
     place in April l990, and the discussion of the international
     development strategy, would be important occasions to address
     all those questions.  Referring to decisions and resolutions
     adopted by international organizations and

     conferences, he said that what was lacking for their
     implementation was political will.

     He attached great importance to the question of the protection of
     the environment, he continued.  Pollution must be reduced, and
     all countries must co-operate to achieve that.  He supported the
     United Nations conference on environment and development, to be
     convened in Brazil in 1992.   Finally, he said, the debt
     question was an unbearable problem for the developing
     countries.  The international development strategy and the
     special session of the General Assembly should try to find ways
     to relieve the debt burden.

     FERENC SOMOGYI (Hungary) said international economic relations
     had assumed a more global character; the international economy
     was undergoing a swift and apparently lasting transformation.
     The chronic malfunctions of the international financial and
     monetary system, as well as national and regional protectionist
     and discriminatory practices, had raised barriers to world trade
     and imposed a heavy burden on international economic relations.
     Unfavourable terms and conditions made it virtually impossible
     for some countries to be integrated into the world economy
     through structural adjustment.

     Hungary had undertaken an historic challenge to begin the
     democratization process, institute a market economy and open it
     to the world economy, he said.  Its strategic goal was to become
     an equal member of the democratic community of advanced
     societies.  The one-party monopoly was being replaced by
     political pluralism with institutional guarantees created for
     civil and community autonomy.  A shift in economic policy was
     needed along with placing the institutional framework of the
     economy on a new basis.  Hungary had begun its process of
     adjustment to the world economy under the pressure of
     debt-servicing obligations; it needed co-operation from developed
     countries and international institutions to fulfil its
     debt-servicing obligations.

     Hungary's two-way participation in the world economy was a basic
     postulate of its external economic strategy, he said.  While
     keeping in line with the development of Western European
     integration, his Government would have to increase its economic
     level to meet that of Western Europe, while continuing to
     diversify its economic relations.  Hungary was preparing for the
     change in Europe scheduled for 1992 and for the implementation of
     an agreement with the European Economic Community (EEC) signed
     in 1988.  Reform and renewal in Hungary, based on broad
     co-operation and abandonment of the "outdated bloc approach",
     might become an integral part of the search for solutions to the
     global problems facing mankind.

     PEDRO DAZA (Chile) said that in the Assembly's general debate,
     many speakers had referred to a new climate of peace in the
     international political sphere.  Such optimism, however, had
     limitations; it was in the Second Committee that those
     limitations were usually discussed.  They concerned economic

 * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)


---
Patt Haring                | United Nations    | Did u read 
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu    | Information       | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET       | Transfer Exchange | today? 
          -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-